Doll News Winter 2019 - 12

Bros. to design and produce the characters from the film.
They were never very familiar with the Oz books and always
envisioned doing the characters from the 1939 film instead.
The premiere character was "Dorothy" which, of course,
necessitated a portrait-sculpt of the young Judy Garland. This
was the first time the Wrights attempted a doll of a real-life
person, which opened the door to doing other realistic portrait
dolls. Dorothy's compelling portrait face is finely modeled
in a true likeness with delicate hand-painted features. Her
meticulously hand-knotted wig is made of the finest customdyed mohair and precisely styled.
Oz's beloved heroine is outfitted in the trademark costume
consisting of a blouse of fine Italian cotton organdy with
custom-dyed rickrack trim, period undergarments, and a
pinafore dress tailored of imported blue checked cotton fabric.
The dress is exactly patterned after the original design by
famed MGM costumer, Adrian, with authentic A-line styling,
including such details as the hidden pocket in the side seam.
The Wrights were able to borrow one of Judy's original dresses
to perfect the detail in their own miniature version. On her feet,
Dorothy wears cotton anklets and detailed miniature replicas
of the iconic Ruby Slippers - hand-cobbled from fine leather
and covered in micro-sequins, rhinestones, and faceted crystals.
On one arm, Dorothy carries a custom-made miniature of the
basket in the film with checkered napkin inside. No effort has
been spared to make this the most authentic version of this
beloved character ever created.
Using the 'Dorothy' doll as an example: The Wrights began
by building a library of images of Judy Garland during the time
she appeared in the Wizard of Oz, referring to vintage photos
as well as actual screen 'grabs' from the Wizard of Oz movie.
The film images were especially helpful to view the head
from several different angles. The first step was to establish a
scale-the size that the completed doll would be. Using the
measurements as a guide, they sculpted the nude full figure toscale in clay. This preliminary sculpture was then dissembled
so focus could be placed on each of the individual parts: torso,
legs, arms and head. For fine-tuning, each part was cast in hard
modeler's wax. The work on the face was the most extensive
to achieve a true likeness. To monitor the work's progress, the
Wrights made translucent images of vintage photographs,
which were super-imposed over photos of the wax head. These
overlays would help to point out discrepancies in the sculpt.
Top: Dorothy's compelling portrait face is finely modeled
in a true likeness with delicate hand-painted features.
Center: The original clay sculpt of Margaret Hamilton as
the "Wicked Witch" had both nose and chin undercuts
which were difficult to solve effectively.
Bottom: The "Wicked Witch's molded felt character face
has been finely modeled in a true likeness with handpainted features and shaded green complexion.
12

WINTER 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Doll News Winter 2019